What goes into a marketing video?

Have you ever wanted to know what goes into a professional marketing video or commercial? In this article I will give you a brief overview of everything that goes into commercials that you see on TV, YouTube, and Facebook. These videos range from $50,000 to $300,000 or more.?There are nine stages a marketing video goes through.

The nine stages of a marketing video production are:

1. Research
2. Define Video Goals
3. Script Writing
4. Pre-Production
5. Production
6. Post-Production
7. Graphics
8. Analytics
9. Re-edits

Research

The marketing director has a meeting with the research team. Companies may have an in house research team or they may hire another company that specializes in market research. They will track how past clients found the products and what words the clients use to describe the product and brand. They will track how clients describe their pain points and how the product helps. They will also track age, where they live, how they spend their time, and what they value. A team member will then take that raw data and pull out keywords, common personality traits, and other similar values to define the exact market they wish to reach. The research team then presents the client profile to the marketing director.

Defining Video goals

We want every video to perform well, to shine a beacon on the brand, but before that can happen, it’s crucial to define what success looks like.

The marketing director will hire a video production company or they will hire a video producer. A company will have all the teams in place, while a video producer needs time to call through his contacts to assemble his team. Either way, there is always a video producer assigned to oversee the full project. Producers take care of more than one video at a time so they will hire a director who takes care of the details of the video. The owner of the company, chief marketing officer, video producer, director, and lead marketing researcher will have a brainstorm meeting to discuss three things: how the video is going to be used in their campaigns, where it will go in the marketing funnels, and what the video will inspire the viewer to feel then do.

1. What part of the marketing strategy is this video for? (I will be writing a separate article on marketing strategies. Follow me to keep an eye out for that.) Is the video introducing people to the brand? Is the video building credibility? Will it be directing people on how to sign up or what to expect after the purchase? Or is the video for clients that have worked with you in the past?
2. Where is the video going? Is the video going to be for your website, YouTube, Facebook, TV, or other media outlets? Each media platform requires different lengths, frame formats, and tactics. Sometimes you will film a video so that editors can use the content on every media platform and that requires a lot of planning and foresight to execute.
3. What do you want the viewers to feel, then do? We always want the viewer to feel seen and understood. We want them to know that we know what their pain points are. We want them to feel confident that this product or service is the solution to their problem. This is why it is crucial to have your market research done before the brainstorm meeting. You need the client profiles to make a clear decision on how you want them to react to your video.

Script Writing

Each marketing company has their own way of writing scripts. Sometimes the video producer will have the client involved throughout the whole writing process. In most cases, the director, lead writer, and a writing assistant will review the client profiles and work on a few ideasーalso known as loglines. Loglines are just one or two sentence paragraphs that convey an idea. The writers will share the ideas with people they trust around the office. When they think they have one or two really good ideas they will write out full scripts, review them with the producer, then pitch the scripts to the client. Writing scripts can take a week and sometimes a month depending on the feedback from the client.?

Pre-Production

When the client is happy with the script they move into pre-production. The video producer manages the budget while the video director delegates various responsibilities to the production designer, location scout, cinematographer, wardrobe supervisors, casting supervisor, and others. Cast and crew depend on what the story calls for. The video director will receive reports and have meetings with each team lead. Pre-production can take anywhere from a few weeks to sometimes a month.

Production

Most productions take 2 weeks, but occasionally, some are filmed in a couple of days. Really it depends on the team and what they plan to do. On filming day, there may be ten to thirty people working, sometimes more. There is the video director and his assistant, the cinematographer and her assistants, the location manager, grips, gaffers, casting, photographer, and catering to name just a few people on set. Everything is planned and practiced beforehand. Complicated shots have been tested and practiced before the day of shooting. Actors should have their lines memorized and if everything goes well, the production will stay on schedule and on budget.

Post-Production

Everything that was filmed is offloaded into a secure database that has backups. The editors and special effects designers move the video through five key stages of post-production. Rough cut, refine edit, coloring, audio design, and graphics. While the video is coming together, a composer may be hired to produce a song distinctly for the commercial. Post-production can take about a month, sometimes two months depending on the complexities of the special effects.

Graphics

While the post-production team is hard at work on the video, the graphics team makes all the video thumbnails, photos, copy, short video clips, and any other graphics the video campaign is going to need. The graphics team consists of two to four people: a graphic designer, a copywriter, a photographer, and a videographer.

Analytics

The video is presented to the company owner and marketing director. When it is approved it is handed off to the campaign manager. A marketing video is more than just one video. There are typically several different versions of the video. There are versions with different introductions so the analytics team can see if there is a better way to capture the viewer's attention. There are also different versions depending on the social media platform they are posting the video on.

The campaign manager and the assistant upload every version of the video to their chosen media platform and schedule the videos to go live on a specified date. They check to make sure each video is posted with the right thumbnails and copy.

When the marketing video is live the marketing director, campaign manager, and analytic specialist look at the numbers and make small tweaks to where they are putting their ad spend. Their goal is to get the best return on their investment (ROI). For most companies, if they are making $3 back for every $1 of ad spend, the campaign is going well.

Re-edits

For the next month or so the company will ask the video producer for slight changes to the video. They will ask for different images and graphics as well but for the most part the project is done. There is a limit to how many times the company can request changes to their videos before they need to start up a new video project. Those limits are normally written out in the agreements at the beginning of production.?

That was a lot to cover in a short amount of time. I hope you found it helpful. When I got into the marketing world nine years ago I wished I had a brief overview like this. Most of what I found was fragments and the whole process and a lot of it was outdated because the marketing world was taking a big shift onto social media. If you have questions or? would like to receive consulting for your next marketing video email me at [email protected].